


Quality Time in the Kitchen

by okay_klepto



Series: The Many Adventures of Shiro and Keith [12]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cooking, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Grocery Shopping, M/M, they're in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-08-01 04:20:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16277678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okay_klepto/pseuds/okay_klepto
Summary: While his building is being treated for mold growth, Shiro is staying with Keith and Lance in their apartment.  Keith wants to make a big, yummy meal for the three of them, but that means Shiro has to help.  He's not used to long grocery shopping trips or following recipes or not eating exactly when and what he wants to, but Keith doesn't mind.  what really matters is the time they get to spend together.





	Quality Time in the Kitchen

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to F-L-U-F-F dog.
> 
> Ch 2 should be up mid-next week.
> 
> The title may change.
> 
> Time together: a little over a year.

   Shiro leaned on the handlebar of the shopping cart.  He watched Keith talk to the young man behind the butcher’s counter, explaining to him what meat he wanted.

_ Grocery shopping is so boring, _ Shiro thought.   _ How does Keith do this? _

   Keith stood back from the counter and waited for the man to give him his desired cuts of meat.

   “What did you get?”  Shiro asked, face smushed into his arms.

   “Beef, cubed.”

   “Why couldn’t you just cut it at home?”

   “Because I hate cutting raw meat.”

   A moment later, the man returned with a package and handed it to Keith with a smile.  Keith thanked him and set the paper package into the shopping cart next.

   “I don’t like him,” Shiro said as they walked away from the meats, glaring at the young butcher a little too long.

   “You don’t even know him,” Keith defended, crossing ‘beef’ off of his shopping list.

   “He looked at you funny.”

   “You look at me funny all the time.”

   “Well, he was like…  _ looking _ at you.”

   “It doesn’t matter, Takashi.  We just need to get the food and leave.”

   “Why did you get the meat first?”

   “Because the butchery closes early.  Just put it under those bags to keep it cold.”

   Keith walked in front of the cart that Shiro pushed.  They had a few items already in the cart, but by the looks of Keith’s list, they needed to get a lot more.  Shiro guided the cart through the maze of aisles, displays, and other shoppers, following closely behind Keith.  Shopping was boring as hell, but at least the view was nice.

   “What are those?”  Shiro asked, just to keep himself a little bit entertained.

   “Baby potatoes,” Keith said as he put a bag into the cart.  Shiro continued to follow Keith as he got a stalk of celery and a bundle of large carrots.

   “Why are you getting this stuff?” Shiro asked.

   “It’s for the bourguignon.  I’ve already told you that.”

   “Oh.”  Shiro watched Keith compare onions, though he saw no difference.  “Are those for the bourgeoisie too?”

   “Bourguignon.  And yes, one will be.”  Keith also retrieved a small box of mushrooms and a bulb of garlic.

   “There’s a lot going in here.”

   “That’s how cooking works.  Get a bunch of stuff and throw it together.”  Keith eyed the display of lettuce. Shiro groaned.  When Keith’s attention stayed firmly on the lettuce, then drifting to cabbage, Shiro groaned again, this time louder and more pronounced to make sure Keith knew is his discomfort.

 What'st’s wrong now?”  Keith sighed and looked at Shiro who was fiddling with the cart.

   “I’m bored…” Shiro mumbled.

   “Well, we only have a few more things to get.  What kind of bread do you want?”

   “Wheat.”

   However, Keith did not have ‘a few more’ items to get.  He had a whole list. A big, long list that would require them to go all over the store, probably spending an hour at the grocer’s.  Shiro did not know this, and Keith planned to keep it that way. Shiro just pushed the shopping cart, this time following Keith into the bread aisle.

   “What are we getting?”  Shiro looked at the rows of food.

   “Wheat bread, pasta, bagels…”  Keith held two boxes of pasta. “Angel hair or regular spaghetti?  Or…” Keith looked to the other boxes. “Would rigatoni be better? Maybe shells…”

   “I’m sure whichever you choose will fine, babe.”  Shiro read the labels on the food. “It’s pasta. It can’t be that big of a deal.”

   “It matters to me, Takashi.”  Keith threw a box into the cart.  “Rigatoni. Get a package of blueberry bagels and meet me in the next aisle.”

   Shiro shrugged and pulled the first bag of blueberry bagels he found off the shelf and chased Keith down, not letting Keith lose him this time around..  Keith greeted Shiro by putting a box of chicken broth and some various cans in the cart.

   “Can we get this?”  Shiro held up of pineapple rings.

   “No, we don’t need that.”

   “These?”  Shiro held a bag of marshmallows.

   “No!  Put that back!”

   “You’re no fun.”  Shiro watched as Keith pulled more cans off the shelves.

   “Could you go back and get some crackers and bread crumbs?  I don’t care which crackers, and make sure it’s the bread crumb in a cylindrical container with spices in it.”

   “Oh-kay.”  Shiro sang as he walked back to where he was and immediately forgot where anything was.

_ Crackers,  _ he thought.   _ Crackers… and breadcrumbs?  What the hell are bread crumbs? _  Shiro stared at the various boxes and bag, finding the crackers easily.  These “breadcrumbs” however, not so much.

   “Do you need help finding something, sir?”  A young lady wearing a green apron with “Grover’s” embroidered on it approached Shiro, a sweet smile across her face.

   “Yes, actually.”  Shiro recounted what Keith had said.  “My boyfriend told me to get breadcrumbs.  They come in a cylindrical container, and they have spices?”

   “I know just what you’re talking about.”  The girl lead Shiro about halfway down the aisle.  “Right up there, one with the blue label.” She pointed to the top shelf which was much out of her reach.

   Shiro grabbed a container, thanked her, and went to find Keith.  Shiro looked down the aisles, eventually finding Keith knelt down looking at some bottles.

   “Found them!”  Shiro showed Keith what he had gotten.

   “Perfect.  You found the breadcrumbs alright?”

   “Yeah, an employee helped me.”

   “That’s good.”

   Shiro knelt down beside Keith.  “What are you looking at?”

   “Detergent.  I forget what kind Lance said he liked…  You know what? Fuck it.” Keith grabbed a bottle and set it in the cart.  “My shopping, my rules. Will you get a package of paper towels?”

   “Where are they?”

   “Up there.”  Keith pointed up to the shelf the paper towels were perched on.

   Shiro effortlessly retrieved a package off the top shelf.  “Are we almost done?”

   “Almost.  We need vitamins, toothpaste, and some dairy items.  And I need to pick up my prescription refills.”

   Shiro groaned.  “Why do we have to get so much stuff?  There are only three of us. This is taking forever.”

   “Well, you picked me up in your SUV so I figure I ought to get a bunch of shopping done since I have a vehicle that can carry it all.  And you and Lance eat like you’re pregnant.”

   “But I thought we’d get a little  _ alone time _ before Lance got off of work.”  Shiro wiggled his eyebrows.

   “Well, would you rather have  _ that _ or a few good meals, Mr I-Only-Ever-Eat-Sandwiches-And-Soup?”

   “That’s not true!  I had pasta last week!”

   “Instant ramen doesn’t count, Takashi.”

   “Aw, Keith…  Can’t we just get the essentials then make a getaway home and to the bedroom?”

   Keith continued walking down the aisle.  “We can ‘make a getaway’ once we get everything on the list.  Unless, of course, you want to do more grocery shopping tomorrow to get all of the things we don’t need for dinner tonight.”

   Shiro grumbled some more as the thought of more torturous shopping went through his head.  Why couldn’t they just go out to eat? Or get groceries delivered to the apartment?

   “I’m going to get my prescriptions, can you get these things?”  Keith pointed to a few items on his list. “Nothing else, okay?”

   “Yeah, yeah.”  Shiro eyed the list as Keith left him alone in the personal health aisles.

_ Let’s see… toothpaste…  _ Shiro looked around.   _ Where’s the toothpaste? _

   He searched the shelves before coming to a wall of toothpaste.

_ Shit, what does Keith want?  Whitening? Deep clean? Fresh?  Cavity protection? _  Shiro tried to remember what Keith’s tube of toothpaste looked like and took the box that matched that the closest.  Now for vitamins. Specifically vitamin D and C.

_ Heh heh,  _ Shiro chuckled to himself,  _ vitamin D _

   As Shiro was carefully examining the bottles of different vitamins and supplements, Keith approached him with his little, paper bag containing his pills.

   “How’s it going?”  Keith peered over Shiro’s shoulder and plucked a bottle off the shelve.  “1000 ui.”

   “You take the kind you swallow?”

   “Yeah?”  Shiro’s questioned seemed odd to Keith.

   “Not the yummy gummy ones?”

   “I’m not a pussy, Takashi,” Keith teased.  “I’m good at swallowing.” 

   The light pink that kissed the apples of Shiro’s cheeks made Keith laugh.  “C’mon. Is there anything else from over here?”

   “These?”  Shiro helped up a little box.  “Maybe for tonight?”

   “Takashi!  Put those down!”  Shiro laughed and put the box of condoms back where he found them, this time Keith’s cheeks turning pink.

   “Besides,” Keith added, “I have plenty already.”

   “Ohohoh, does mean what I think it mean?”  Shiro slinked over to Keith and put his arms around his waist.

   “Only if you behave while we finish.”  Keith wriggled free. “And maybe not tonight, sometime later this week, maybe the next.”

   “Gonna keep me waiting?”

   “Be quiet, Takashi.”

   “Someone’s being demanding, but I promise I’ll  _ behave… _ ”

   “Shut up, or I’ll leave you here.”

   “But I drove you.”

   “I know how to drive.”  Keith looked at the rest of his list.  “We still need to get the dairy stuff, cereal... and red wine.”

   “Red wine?  Then maybe something  _ will _ happen tonight~”

   “For cooking, Takashi”

   Keith searched the shelves and racks a few more boxes and bags.  Shiro continued to push the shopping cart, bored as ever. Fro him, grocery shopping was always a short trip.  He would go in, get a few items, and leave. He never had a list, or really a plan: if something looked good, he bought it.  Today, he had even gone down some aisles that he didn’t know existed. He always just grabbed a handbasket, never a cart. He had never been to the deli, or knew there was one, and he didn’t know the grocery store held such a variety of foods.  He watched as Keith pulled containers of yogurt from a shelf, then a stick of butter.

   “How do you know what to get?”  Shiro asked.

   “What do you mean?”  Keith examined the cheese.

   “Like, whenever I go shopping, I just get stuff.  Bread, juice, cheese, whatever catches my eye. But you have a list and you know how much to buy.”

   “Because, unlike you, I plan my meals.”

   “I plan my meals!”

   “Takashi, do you remember what we’re going to make out of all this stuff?”

   “No.”

   “Beef bourguignon.  I’ll prep everything tonight and cook it in the slow cooker tomorrow morning and it will be done when I get back from work.  That will last you, Lance, and I a few days, then I have stuff for chicken parm which we’ll also have the following week once stuff is eaten up.  We go on a date on Tuesday, so I’ll have half my meal from that which means I’ll have an extra portion for another day, or I could bring it as lunch to work instead of buying something.”  Keith put some cheese in the cart. “That’s planning.”

   “Wow.  I guess my apartment complex picked a good week to get mold treatment.”

   “You just lucked out.”

   The two men then made it to the checkout lines.  Only a few registers were open, but luckily none of them had too many people in them.  As they waited, Keith flipped through his coupons one last time and Shiro browsed the tabloid catalogues and candy.  Without Keith noticing, he tossed a few candy bars and containers and gum onto the conveyor belt with the rest of the food.  The groceries began to get rung up one by one, Shiro’s eyes widening as the total slowly rose from $30, to $50, then to $65.

   “Takashi,” Keith said as he fiddled with his wallet.  “I forgot the wine. Will you get a bottle?”

   “Yeah, sure.”  Anything to get out of this damn line.

   “Takashi.”  Keith looked Shiro dead in the eye.  “Listen to me very carefully. I need red COOKING wine.  Get something like Pinot Noir or Merlot. Don’t get anything too expensive, okay?  I don’t need too much either.”

   “Got it.”

   “What are you getting?”  Keith raised his eyebrows.

   “Red cooking wine that’s not too expensive.  Pinot or Merlot.”

   “Good.”  Keith brushed his hands outwards.  “Go.”

   Shiro turned and went back into the store with his new mission.

   “Do you bring him along often?”  The middle aged woman behind the counter said with a friendly smile.

   “No.  He never goes shopping on his own, either.  I’m afraid he won’t come back.”

   “So you do most of the cooking?”

   “Yeah, but he’s not at my place often so I don’t mind making something else when he’s over.  He lives off sandwiches and ramen.”

   The woman laughed.  “Sounds like my son.”

   Shiro walked hurriedly, looking down the aisle for any sign of wine.  Would it be with the rest of the alcohol? But Keith said cooking wine?  What the hell is cooking wine? After a few minutes of wandering, Shiro found the corner of the store that held the alcohol.  He found the small aisles with the wine and stared his search.

   “Looking for anything specific, sir?”  A man with a similar apron to the girl who helped him find the breadcrumbs appeared.

   “I’m looking for wine… cooking wine.  Red. Pinoir? Merl-something?”

   “I take it you don’t cook with wine often?”  The man began to lead Shiro to another area of the alcohol section.

   “No.  My boyfriend asked me to get some… I guess he forgot that I know next to nothing about cooking.”

   “You and I are similar.”  They stopped in front of another rack.  “Any specific brand?”

   “No, he just said something not too expensive.”

   “What’s he making?”

   “Something with beef and potatoes that goes in the slow cooker.”

   “This one should work.”  The man pulled a bottle from the shelf and handed it to Shiro.  “I hope it turns out well.”

   “Thank you!”  Shiro smiled at the employee and jogged back to the line that Keith was standing in, bobbing and weaving through other patrons at the store.  His eyes met Keith’s from over a rack of magazine’s and he smiled, holding up the bottle of wine like a trophy.

   “Thank you, Takashi,” Keith said with a smile as he took the bottle from Shiro and handed it to the cashier.  “I was starting to think that maybe you had gotten lost.”

   “I got more help from another employee.”  Shiro slipped past Keith and began to lift the bags of groceries into the shopping cart.  The young lady bagging groceries ogled at Shiro’s ability to effortlessly lift even the heaviest bags up off the end of the grocery belt and into the cart.  Shiro just watched Keith fish coupons out of his wallet and and talk to the cashier.

   Once everything had been paid for and the groceries loaded into the shopping cart, Keith and Shiro began the journey back out to Shiro’s SUV.

   “Is there anything else we need?”  Keith asked as they walked through the parking lot, quickly going over his mental checklist of everything he needed to do to prepare for Shiro’s visit.

   “We could rent a movie?”  Shiro suggested as they approached his vehicle.

   “We can just find something on Netflix.”

   “Sounds good to me.  When’s Lance getting home?”

   “I don’t know, but it will probably right as we finish the prep for this meal and…”  Keith’s face went blank as he stared at Shiro with wide eyes. “I didn’t get anything for dinner tonight!  And Lance took some leftovers for lunch today! I was so worried about the bourguignon and chicken parm I forgot about tonight!  We won’t-”

   “Keith.”  Shiro put both of his hands on Keith’s waist and bent down to look him in the eyes.  “Everything is going to be alright. Just take a breath. We can just get something delivered.”

   Keith tried to get is breathing from rapid to regular, but his hands were still shaking from anxiety.  “But there’s no point in getting something delivered if we’re already in town now and it will cost more plus I don’t know what Lance wants and I-”

   “Then let’s get something now.”  Shiro’s smiled softly at Keith. “Just the two of us.”

   “But that will mess up my meal plans for this week since I’ll have some leftover.”

   “How about we worry about that later, okay?  Right now let’s just choose which restaurant we want to eat at.  And if worst comes to worst, Lance will just have to eat your leftovers.”

   Keith’s lips curled into a shy smile and he nodded, Shiro’s smiling brighter before their smiles met in a gentle kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this! Again, ch 2 (them cooking) will be up soon.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and I really hope you enjoyed this fic! Don’t forget to check out my [other works](https://archiveofourown.com/users/okay_klepto) as well. As always, comments and kudos are much appreciated, and please consider making a small [Ko-fi donation](https://ko-fi.com/okayklepto) if you enjoy my writing!


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